In-Plant and Between-Plants Logistics

Logistics involves decision making in many different areas. The major areas, which are dependent upon another, are:

• Customer Service Levels
• Facility Location
• Inventory Decisions
• Transport Decisions

A classification of logistics decisons can be made depending upon whether the decisons are made for in-plant operations or between-plant operations.

Examples of in-plant decisons are:

• Deciding on the type of material handling equipment in a warehouse
• Deciding on the allocation of items to storage areas in a warehouse
• Determining safety stock levels for products

Examples of between-plants decisons are:

• Deciding on the locations of warehouses
• Determining the routes for vehicles that will deliver goods to customers
• Deciding on which customers in a gegraphic region will be assigned to which warehouses

In this prototype logistics tutorial, we will focus on an example from each of the classes, namely, "order picking" as an example of in-plant logistics, and "vehicle routing" as an example of between-plant logistics.

Each of these tutorials will be accompanied with demonstrations of specialized software products that will enable the student to experiment with different techniques described.